Martin, it is a convention in SMSQ/E (or Level 2 device drivers?) that OPEN_DIR will never return an error (as long as there is some medium available, at least). Quote from the reference guide: Note also that most device drivers, when requested to open a directory will, if no such directory exists, ...

Everything else is transparent. The timing is changed in the sense that everything can work ~zero wait but the default clock is still 7.5MHz exactly the same so MDV, NET all work excatly as before. That's roughly within the range of a fast RAM expansion - I don't think this would pose a problem. I ...

The Ql was probably the first home computer to feature a "real" operating system in the basic configuration. All other computers I had before were like the Spectrum or C64, implementing basic functionality to run the BASIC interpreter, and then collected commonly usable subroutines that co...

Put it in a dry and warm place for a week, then simply power it on. (At least if it doesn't rattle when shaken) If it works after the first 10 seconds, fine (it probably won't completely work). If it doesn't, quickly switch it off, then come back to us for tips on repair. There are computers out the...

That experience is mainly based on old Amigas, Ataris and Macs older than 20 years .

I never owned a PC long enough to have the battery leak - They're just not worth to be kept that long.

Tobias

My experience with rechargeables to keep the RTC alive in retro computers is mixed:

I'd rather have a clock that loses time every now and then than a battery that potentially destroys the PCB by leaking when not used for half a year.

That was probably an obvious note.

Tobias

I'm pretty sure SGC DRAM refresh should work differently - I'd guess there are no /DS pulses as well when the CPU is running code from the instruction cache.

Tobias

Interesting.

Q-Emulator flashes the first few pixels nicely here with the example I provided on my Mac with Parallels and Windows 7, regardless of window or fullscreen mode. This is sometimes caused by Windows screen drivers that mess up Aqua mode.

Tobias

Keith, flashing pixels is actually a hardware function on the real QL - When the flash bits are set, the pixels will start to flash in 50Hz intervals driven by the hardware. The flash bits are, other than any other screen bits on the QL, a sort of serial attribute - You only set them at the beginnin...

The later ZX Microdrives worked pretty well on a QL, you could format, read and write without any problems.

The main reasons why you want to connect them today are:

• Because you can
• It just looks so odd you simply have to

Tobias